After more than 2 weeks of watching the weather, today was finally a good day for my long cross country flight. The FARs state that private pilot candidates must complete at least one cross country flight that is at least 150nm. The FARs also tell us that we need to log at least 5 hours of solo XC time for the private pilot certificate. The 150nm trip is referred to by student pilots and their instructors as 'the long cross country'.
This flight is very much a test of all of the material presented thus far in the private pilot course of study. You use it all on this flight: flight planning, weather evaluation, fuel management planning, reading the sectional an chart supplements, working with Flight Service Stations, radio communications...oh yeah, and flying the airplane.
Fletch and I talked on Monday and scheduled my flight for the following day. The weather has been poor for this flight for the last several weeks, unstable days with lots of cloud development and rain, so we were tentative about Tuesday. The forecast was good, but the forecast lies...a lot.
Tuesday morning I woke to rain and thick clouds blowing over the house, couldn't even see the ocean. I figured my flight was off but checked the weather on the internet with my coffee anyway. Interestingly, the weather reports on the internet sounded like really good flying weather, not at all like what I was seeing out the window. So, I called Fletch and asked what he thought. He was at the airport and said it looked great, he had already called for a weather briefing and checked my route of flight and told me it looked good. Great! The plane works, the weather is good and I am available...a miracle!!
I got to work on my flight plan, sitting at my desk at home. I am finding that this is a way better environment than the hangar, as there are fewer distractions and I have access to the internet. I use the very cool AOPA flight planner software, and then manually (sectional, plotter and E6B calculator) confirm the headings and leg times I get there to complete my navigation log. The software is really slick, you can plug in variables for winds aloft, fuel burn, true airspeed, etc...then draw your route on the chart and it gives you a printout of each leg along with fuel burn, time en route, time/distance remaining. It's very handy!
My flight would follow the south shore of Maui, across the channel to Kona Int'l. After refueling at Kona, I would fly behind the west shores of Kahoolawe and Lanai to Molokai, then back to Maui via south shore of Molokai. This route is 230 miles, by far the longest flight I've made. The Makena -> Kona and Kona -> Lanai legs are also very long (45 min - 1 hour) over water legs. Fortunately for me (too bad for the sharks), 32Lima has a strong engine and runs like a champ.
Once I had a flight plan, I called up FSS and got a weather briefing and outlook briefing, it was pretty much what Fletch had reported: great flying weather. Scattered to broken clouds at 2500'-4000' close to Kona, clear in the channels, winds 100@20kts at 3000', easterly trades at Maui and light winds at Kona and Molokai. Perfect! Doing this stuff at home, before heading down to the airport is the way, if I do it all at the airport it takes forever. It's also nice to have my nice quiet office (with no jets taking off right outside the door) so I can actually hear the weather briefer I'm talking to. I even called and left recorded flight plans on the flight plan recorder, ready to be amended with actual departure times and activated over the radio once airborne.
I hope I'm a professional pilot by the time the feds make the huge mistake of privatizing our national Air Traffic Control infrastructure.
Fletch was out with a student in 32Lima when I got to the hangar. I walked around and looked at airplanes for a few minutes while waiting for them to get back. No matter how much time I spend at the airport, I never get tired of just walking around looking at the airplanes. The sounds and smells of aviation are delicious: props and jets, radio chatter, mechanics working, fuel, oil and hydraulic fluid. It's just an environment that is so ripe with potential.
Once they got back, I let Fletch review my flight plan information while I preflighted the airplane. After a successful preflight (added a quart of oil), we sat down to review my plan and add a new solo XC endorsement to my logbook. We reviewed all of the radio frequencies I would need, airport diagrams for each of my airports, alternate routes in case of poor visibility, etc. Once I'd convinced him I had a good idea of what I would do in the air, I took one more bathroom break and loaded up the plane.
The C-152 is hardly a Cross Country machine. It's slow, it's small, it's nimble and responsive and thus requires a constant control to stay on course. The cockpit is tiny, so I wind up with stuff all over the place: chart, calculator, kneeboard, nav log...it pretty much takes up both of the 2 seats just to have all of the stuff I need to fly a long trip. It's neat to see how as I gain experience, I can do more with less...but for now I'm spread out all over the place.
I took off at 11:30, 1/2 hour later than my plan. As I climbed to 2000' and headed toward Makena, I noted the time and called up FSS to activate my plan. Finally, in the air...cooled by airflow through the cabin and the dropping temperature as I gain altitude. Makena came up momentarily and I crossed the windline, through the bumps and into the trades, offshore at La Perouse and on course for Kona. I noticed the clouds were really thin out in the channel and so climbed to 3500' for the cruise to Kona, leaning out the mixture to burn fuel more efficiently. About 10 minutes later I began to get faint VOR readings. The needle would center then swing off to the right and show the 'nav' flag (meaning it isn't working at all). I'd listen to the station and hear nothing or very, very faint Morse code. Great, no reliable VOR...again. Oh well...guess I'll learn how to not rely on one single navigation method for getting me there. In the absence of a reliable VOR radial to fly, I just flew the heading I'd come up with in my plan and looked out the window. What do you know, that took me right to the Kona Airport. We love it when it works out the way we planned. Honolulu Center handed me off to Kona Tower who advised me of a Gulfstream doing touch and goes, and told me to follow the Gulfstream to land on RWY 35, cleared 35 #2 behind the Gulfstream.
As I descended to pattern altitude, I saw the jet on the runway. The jet took off and climbed to my altitude and started a turn right toward me. I had a great view! They flew downwind and set up to land before I could even get into the pattern. Ever so slowly (compared to the jet) I made my way down the length of the 10,000' runway and finally turned base. On short final I stayed a little high to avoid landing short and having a mile to taxi and touched down 1000' past the touch down zone. I still had a mile to taxi.
When I got to the fuel depot, there was nobody there. I called up FSS and closed my flight plan and then tried getting the fuel people on the radio, to no avail. Then I tried calling them, got the recorder. I called Fletch and eventually decided to just take off and finish my flight. According to my plan, I needed 3 hours of fuel, and had 4 hours on board when I departed. That's enough to complete my flight and still have an hour on board (which is 30 minutes more reserve than the regs demand). Great to visit Kona, but it's hot...much nicer in the air. Kona Tower had me taxi all the way back to the end of RWY 35 (10 minutes) to take off. Once airborne, I called FSS and activated the flight plan for my Kona -> Kahului flight, gotta love that flight plan recorder. They acknowledged my amended departure time and I was good to go.
Honolulu Center kept me abreast of traffic in the area and gave me something to listen to as I trudged across the open blue ocean toward Lanai. Once I got out from under Kona's coastal clouds I climbed to 4500' to take advantage of leaner fuel burns and maybe stronger winds. Then I just sort of waited to get there...I played with the VOR and it didn't work, so I traced my route on the sectional and calculated where I was based on my estimated ground speed and just played pilot. Every 5 minutes or so I'd check to make sure the fuel was on (duh...like I wouldn't notice if all of a sudden the fuel turned off), made sure the engine instruments were in the green, checked the ammeter and radios, adjusted the DG...just little routine tasks to keep from getting bored.
Coming up on Kahoolawe was spectacular, I was in between a ridge of clouds about 20nm off my left wing, and Kahoolawe and Maui in the distance in the afternoon sun off my right wing, it was gorgeous! After crossing abeam the northwestern tip of Kahoolawe I began a descent to 2000' to get under the clouds above Lanai. The VOR finally began to work about 5 miles from the Lanai VORTAC, but I ignored it as I flew right over the VORTAC. There was a little rain on the west side of Lanai and I got wet for a few minutes before popping out into the sunshine on Lanai's north shore. Just a hop, skip and a jump across the channel and I'd be at Molokai. I called up Honolulu Center and canceled flight following: squawk VFR, frequency change approved and have a nice day.
The controller at Molokai sounded bored as he cleared me to 'either 17 or 23, your choice'. I was about to enter a left downwind for 17 when he told me the wind was 210@6 if I wanted to switch to 23, so I did. Made a left downwind for 23 and slowed down, dropping flaps and powering back. Had a nice, smooth landing and took off immediately to head back to Maui.
About halfway across the channel I got Maui Approach on the radio and advised them of my progress down the coast toward MacGregor Point. As I came around MacGregor, there was a big rain squall between me and the airport. I tuned the VOR to Maui's ILS and watched the needle swing as I maintained the assigned heading and waited for the 767 on downwind to turn final, I'd be following him in. There he is at 3000' at my 10 o'clock. ATC cleared me to turn and told me straight in for 2 behind the Boeing 767, caution wake turbulence and contact Maui Tower on 118.7.
No problem, I just flew right down the line to the runway. There was a little bit of a tailwind when I landed, but it was easy, I just had to brake a lot to stop in time for Echo. That's it...I'm home!
What a flight. It was completely uneventful, almost boring even. I'm getting comfortable with the ATC system and getting used to having an idea of what is going on around me from listening to the radios. It's been a really fun process, and I'm becoming a pilot.
Fletch and I reviewed my flight when I got back to the hangar and John asked me how much fuel I planned to burn. He would call me and let me know what the actual burn was after he refueled the plane. My estimate was 18 gals and the actual was 15.6 gals. I guess flying higher and leaning made a difference, I burned less than planned. Fletch told me he was pleased and that he wants to schedule the checkride within 2 weeks. That means I have some oral exam prep review to do, a few mock checkride flights and then I get to fly with the examiner!
It's good to be almost done, I am really excited to have this training behind me and to be a private pilot. Keep checking in and when you see that I passed the checkride, feel free to shoot me an email and ask me to take you up, I'll be looking for passengers ;)